Becalmed, Mayhem, and a Maintenance Warning

[Mark]

All

Small trip report and a warning

Yesterday I went sailing in Batemans Bay, the first for a while and now the QB weekend crowds had dispersed I thought it would be a perfect day along with my two sailing colleagues also going out in their boats.

A lovely sunny morning, gently breeze, NNW moving me along at 4 kt, then around 11.15hr - becalmed.

11.16 hr a vesper from the south, builds and becomes a 25-30 kt roar - all hell broke loose as I had too much sail up for the conditions, jibed and headed to a beach on a run so I could get sails down or at least reefed. But it was not to be, failed to furl the headsail in those conditions and it became wrapped around the forestay partially with lots of sail flapping in the wind - terrible noise.

Jibe boat into wind and got main down, tied away, motor started and headed for one of two places in bay leeward of the southerly, by now the waves crashing over bow and into cockpit, motor only getting 3.5 kts and the noise from the tangled heady and vibrations it was causing on the mast here horrific. My main concern was the mast and rigging, especially starboard stay and deck thru-bolt which had surface signs of corrosion that was always on the to do list!!

Terrible mast vibrations tested the rigging but survived, got to lee of wind position near Snapper Island then tidied boat and took her across the bar and home. Quite a morning.

Today I finally decided it was time to inspect the starboard stay u-bolt! it was ugly and like prior warnings on this site had corroded in-deck and cracked - when I do not know. Yesterday must have been a real test on it. Finally today have replaced. Time for same job on port side.

Yes I know this site has given lots of warnings about this issue and it always worried me. So a timely reminder maybe its time to check your stay fixtures.

Best

Mark

[snoopebj]

Wow, nasty situation Mark. We had winds gusting to 70kph here in the Illawarra with trees down and a few boat rescues offshore. It came without any severe wind forecast warnings and caught everyone by surprise.
I'll be checking my stay fittings for sure. I have twin stays each side but each pair on the same u-bolt . Kind of defeats the object of having twin stays! I'll add extra u-bolts soon. I do have a furler separate from the forestay on advice of sailing friend and has saved me once during a tangle offshore where I just dropped the whole mess onto the foredeck.
Thanks for the report and heads up Mark.

[Yara50]

Yes, furlers can be a disaster in strong winds, and that is why I converted to a jib down haul.

[no way]

Emerys
Careful with the extra u bolt. Extra bolt in deck is more likely to weaken the deck and change the geometry of the rig. A worst scenario. The 2 stays are not there for safety (one backing up the other) they control the shape of the mast. Better to just check and change u bolts. The failures seen hear don't happen overnight. I checked mine about 3 years ago and they were perfect. They have been on boat since I've owned it and I would expect for a long time prior to that

[atles]

good to see mark
best thing you done this week you did not go out again
with out checking
it take a series of events to cook up a disasters.

[Mark]

Thanks for comments etc. I replaced the port side U-bolt yesterday. I appeared to be on ok shape for a 30+ yr piece but who knows if hairline cracks were there. Actually all u-bolts now changed as also changed the bow haul in point a few weeks back as it also showed signs of corrosion. Replaced most of the rigging also in last 2 months so should be in good shape for a while.

Ian I agree about using haul down might revert to that in some occasions for my Genoa.

Mark

[Andrew]

Thanks for the heavy weather report. It can get a bit touch and go out there.

Had a bit of Heavy weather experience that bordered on the edge last trip, but good to learn where the limits are are how to get around it next time. (investigators can surf! (plane), they also handle wild broaching well)

Ian your comment "Yes, furlers can be a disaster in strong winds, and that is why I converted to a jib down haul." At one point my jib got tangled up while furling/flapping,, is your disaster referal to that or to the furler fitting disintegrating causing dismasting? How is the jib downhaul system rigged up?

Cheers

Andrew

[Steve]

The Jib downhaul is the red line running on top of the cabin. It goes to a turning block at the headstem then straight up to the jib halyard shackle. To douse the jib, let the jib halyard free and pull on the red downhaul to bring the head of the sail down the forestay. Then cleat off the down haul to stop the sail riding up the stay in the wind.
You can see the red line running up the luff of the jib going to the halyard shackle.
That's how I have mine set up, Ian might have something a little different.
In my opinion it beats having a furler on a small boat hands down.

[Dr. Peter]

But it was not to be, failed to furl the headsail in those conditions and it became wrapped around the forestay partially with lots of sail flapping in the wind - terrible noise.

Hi Mark,
Can you tell the forum what kind of set up you have to furl the headsail and act as forestay.

[Mark]

All

My setup: i have the furler separate from the forestay. The furler is attached to the wire of the headsail and then hauled tight on the halyard and cleated off at the mast. In times of problems i can useually drop this but in the instance described here the heady was tangled around the forestay and dropping was not possible.

I have a large genoa which i can hank onto the forestay but rarely use it. I have in the past tried it out with a haul down successfully.

I appreciate the benefits of both setups. Btw the furler i use is a larger one from Ronstan than the dingy one i inherited when i bought the boat. The larger size leads to better control, usually.

Regards

Mark